X Marks The Spot
by Princess Andromeda II
Summary: "Annabeth stared at the plastic white stick resting on the edge of the bathroom sink, her eyes boring into its face like a cop interrogating a suspect. The results, two pink lines, stared back at her defiantly, though she could've cared less. She was pregnant." How will Annabeth tell her Seaweed Brain the exciting news? I'm awful at summaries but please read! Plenty of Percabeth ;)
1. Home

**Hallo, everyone! Happy Labor Day to all you Americans and Canadians out there! And to all you other lovely people, happy Monday. :) So basically, this is an idea I've been trying to write for a little over a year now, but me being the unfortunate procrastinator that I tend to be at the most inconvenient of times, I only wrote it over the summer. I've got the first 4 chapters finished, and I wasn't going to post this until I was totally done, but I figured, heck, why not. I've got over a month to finish the next few chapters (please come beat me up if I refrain from my weekly updates with this story). And besides, it's a little ironic that I would publish this story today, given that it is** ** _Labor_** **Day (just a different kind of labor...) Ok, I promise I'm shutting up now, and that my future AN's for this story will be no more than a sentence or two. Now, thank you for reading this far, and I hope you enjoy! :)**

Annabeth stared at the plastic white stick resting on the edge of the bathroom sink, her eyes boring into its face like a cop interrogating a suspect. Two and a half minutes later, she scooped it up and examined it, her hand trembling slightly. The results, two pink lines, stared back at her defiantly, though she could've cared less.

She was pregnant.

At the moment, any worry or stress or uncertainty that she'd been festering inside of her disappeared, and the only emotion she knew was pure joy at the knowledge that she was going to have a baby. She was going to be a mom! She and Percy were going to be _parents_!

 _Percy!_ She thought suddenly, realizing that he would obviously want to know the exciting news. Though she was tempted to just march straight out of that bathroom and tell him immediately, she knew that she really wanted to do something special for him. After all, this would be their first child, and that was an incredibly momentous milestone. It would practically be a sin for her to waste her planning skills (gifted to her by her mother Athena, of course) on something as simple as a card, or otherwise.

With the determination of a hundred-man army, Annabeth scurried from the bathroom to her desk and began planning, an elaborate idea already beginning to form...

"Percy," she cooed quietly, her blonde hair falling in her face as she bent over her sleeping husband. She could feel her soft side coming out as she watched the rise and fall of his chest, and the tousled black strands of hair that were all askew. Even the drool that dripped onto the pillow looked peaceful, so she felt guilty waking him up. "Percy, wake up. Come on, Seaweed Brain. Wake up. Percy... Percy..."

Finally, her resolve to be gentle faded - along with her patience - and she trudged to the bathroom, filled up a bucket with ice water, and returned along with the bucket, right before she unceremoniously dumped it onto her husband's head, greeting him with a roaring, "WAKE UP, SEAWEED BRAIN!"

"Gaaaaaah!" he cried loudly, though when Annabeth turned to look at his expression, she found that he was already standing atop the bed with Riptide fully extended, both feet planted in a battle stance.

"You drool when you sleep," she informed him brightly, plastering a warm, sunny smile on her face. She nearly burst out laughing at the sour look on his face, but she felt merciful enough to avoid making such loud outbursts. For now, at least.

" _Di immortales_ , Annabeth" Percy cursed under his breath, his eyes wide with alarm. "What was _that_ for?!"

She shrugged nonchalantly. "It was time for you to get up."

Percy stared at her the same way that a food addict might look at you after you tell him that he can never eat again. "Annabeth...you do realize it's _Saturday_ , right?"

"Yep."

"And that we don't have to work until noon today, right?"

"Yup."

"So that means that I can _sleep in_!"

"Nope," she answered with a shake of her head, grinning at the dismay on his face. "We've got stuff to do today."

"Stuff? What kind of stuff?" he whined like a four-year-old who's been told that he can't _all_ of the chocolate chip cookies.

" _Secret_ stuff," was all she said, mischievously wiggling her eyebrows.

"Ugh," he groaned, though a smile had started to creep its way onto his tired face. "I hate surprises."

"Not this one!" she promised as she handed him a piece of paper. It was about the size of an index card, and had words written in Sharpie with her neat, font-like handwriting scrawled across it.

He flipped it over. "What do you want me to do with this?"

"What do you _think_ you do with it, Seaweed Brain?" she asked, exasperated. "You read it!"

With a roll of his eyes, he squinted at the letters, struggling to make out the words. "Blah

"I wrote it in Greek on the other side," she said quietly. They both still struggled with dyslexia sometimes, Percy more so than Annabeth, especially if it was 6:00 in the morning.

He flashed her a grateful smile before flipping the card over and reading, with ease this time:

 _Go to our closet_

 _And pick out some shoes_

 _The Nike's or Adidas,_

 _Whichever you choose_

He glanced up at her, slightly confused. "So, do I just...?" He gestured towards the closet, and she nodded with a roll of her eyes. When he hesitated at the door of their closet, she couldn't help but roll her eyes again.

"I promise there aren't any giant scorpions in there, Percy!"

He poked his dark-haired head out, a wary look in his sea-green eyes. "But what about hellhounds? Or harpies? Or really scary babies that like to eat adult sons of Poseidon?"

Though she knew her husband was only kidding, Annabeth's heart skipped a beat when he said the word "baby". But instead of dwelling on it and letting it show, she just swallowed and said with a shake of her head, "I promise that there is nothing scary in there, Seaweed Brain."

He nodded uncertainly, but disappeared inside the small room all the same. Not a moment later, he screamed loudly, "Annabeth! You _liar_!"

"What?" she called, confused.

"There _is_ something scary in here!" Seconds later, he burst out of the closet, a horrified expression on his face as he brandished a second sheet of paper in the air. "Another clue!" He feigned terror, while waving the card in the air like a surrender flag.

"Ugh," she groaned, though she was grinning. "You are so annoying."

"Annabeth! How rude."

She ignored his mock-hurt, saying, "I'm just thankful you actually managed to put on a pair of shoes that match. Nike's," she added with an approving nod. "Nice choice."

"You know me," he replied with a wink. "The fashion guru of Camp Half-Blood."

"Well, Mr. Fashion Guru," she said impatiently, "would you mind reading the next clue? I'm not getting any younger here." _And neither is our baby_ , she thought, but didn't dare say.

He stuck his tongue out at her before turning his eyes to the card and reading:

 _The directions are simple_

 _For your second clue._

 _Just visit the Oracle_

 _She'll tell you what to do._

"The Oracle..." Percy glanced up, excitement illuminating his green eyes. "We get to go see Rachel?"

At one time, long ago, this reaction of Percy getting to see Rachel would have made Annabeth unbelievably jealous, but that had been a long time ago, when they were only kids. She had enough faith in Percy as both a person and her husband to know that he would never do anything to hurt her, ever. And besides, they had been a couple for nearly 15 years now: dated for ten, married for five. She was certain they were what you would call "solid".

"That's right, Seaweed Brain," she said with a grin. "But not until you get dressed and eat something substantial. We've got a lot of walking to do today."

 **So...what did you think? Please please PLEASE review, because you honestly have no idea how much y'alls (y'all's? you guys'?you's guys's? eh, whatever, I'm from the South, I'll just pretend like that's right) opinions matter to me. Thank you for reading! I'll see you next week for another update. :)**

 **Stay positive, and I hope you all have a wonderful Labor Day! (Or Monday.)**

 **Love,**

 **~Princess Andromeda II**


	2. Oracle Cave

**Howdy everyone! I hope y'all are all having a wonderful day so far. As you can see, I'm back with Chapter 2! Thank you to all who reviewed, favorited, and followed last chapter... seriously, I did not expect such immediate feedback! And as to answer some of your questions, this story will have 9 chapters (hmm...interesting. 9 chapters, 9 months of pregnancy,** ** _WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!_** **) and I plan to update every Monday until I finish. Sound good? Excellent! I'll hush now, and thank you in advance for reading; I hope you enjoy it! :)**

Annabeth had expected Percy to drag his feet on getting ready to go, but he got ready in record-timing, throwing on some clothes and downing some cereal faster than Grover headed for the cafeteria on enchilada day at lunch (or so she'd been told by her husband).

"So why are we going to see Rachel?" Percy asked as they trudged up a hill overlooking the amphitheater. Nearby, the Athena Parthenos stood guard against opposing outside forces, the ivory skin of the statue standing out against its gold toga like a person who'd been cooped up indoors too long. The hill leading to the Oracle's cave was a steep incline, but the two demigods hardly noticed it; as many years as they'd been battling monsters, completing quests, and saving the world's butt, a tough climb was the lowest item on their list of concerns, and besides, they didn't even feel the burn in their calves anymore.

"You'll see," was all Annabeth said in reply, just as they reached the mouth of the cave.

Percy paused at the door, uncertain whether it would be rude to just enter without knocking.

As if reading his mind, Annabeth nudged him. "Go ahead. Rachel's expecting us."

He gave her a look of mild surprise, before parting the blue curtains and passing through into Rachel Elizabeth Dare's Quirky Cave of Wonders.

As always, both demigods found their breath being taken away as their eyes panned around the room, taking in the exquisite detail found on the walls of the cave. Elaborate murals coated the walls in fine layers of paint, some detailing historical events, events that were to happen in the future, or events that likely never happened and never would. Still other images displayed art more personal to Rachel herself, like her favorite book, music and movie quotes. Everything about it really was breath-taking.

"Hey, you two!" cried a voice, and almost as if by magic, a woman with flaming red hair appeared in the center of the room, her arms extended in welcome. With her green eyes glittering like emeralds and her faint freckles rippling with her smile, she teased, "Don't you know it's rude not to knock?"

"Hey, Rachel," grinned Annabeth, and the two stepped forward to hug each other like two old friends. (Which they were, ever since Percy had no longer been a common interest of the two girls in _that way_.) Likewise, Percy greeted the red-haired woman with a warm smile and hug, and there was no awkward tension between the three of them like there had been when they were young teenagers.

"Well Rachel," said Percy after the three had commenced with the usual light banter and conversation, "Annabeth forced me to wake up early on a Saturday morning and walk up a _very_ steep hill, so there'd better be a good reason why we're here."

The two girls shared a secretive smile, with Rachel replying, "I'd say there is," as she handed him a shiny object from a pocket of her paint-splattered jeans.

He groaned as he looked at it. "Not another clue!" he complained, though there was an eager smile on his face when he read it.

 _You're many things,_

 _But one you're not,_

 _Is good at archery_

 _And a dead-eye shot_

Percy stared at the paper in confusion. "You want me to do _what_ with this, exactly?"

Annabeth let out a huff and rolled her eyes. "You use it to figure out where to go next, Seaweed Brain."

His eyes grew wide as he feigned shock. "How am I supposed to figure where to go from _this_? It doesn't even make sense!"

"Hey!" Rachel protested indignantly. "I wrote that clue!"

"Well then it's _me_ who should be offended," retaliated Percy. "You basically said I stink at archery."

She shrugged. "You know it's true. You do."

Annabeth giggled, and her husband glared at her. "What are you laughing about, Wise Girl? I bet you didn't write any of the clues, did you?"

His answer was another shrug. "Not my fault Rachel's better at poetry than me. But at least _I_ don't embarrass myself every time I practice at the archery range!"

Percy's eyes widened, and a smug smile overtook his face. "Thank you, Wise Girl."

She blinked slowly. "For what?"

"You just gave me the answer to this clue, and the next location." Handing the clue to Annabeth like she was his maid, he tossed her another smug look before he skipping - actually _skipping_ \- out of the cave. He shouted "See ya later, RED!" at Rachel, who just waved to the happy couple as they exited the room, one of them happy and self-satisfied, the other brooding and annoyed.

"Come on, Wise Girl!" shouted Percy as he raced ahead. "You're slowin' me down!"

"I swear," she muttered to herself as she chased after him, "this is the _last_ time I ever let you drink caffeinated coffee."

 **Sorry that this one's a little bit shorter, but I originally wrote this story as a one-shot, but when it got to be too big I decided to break it up into chapters. For that reason, the chapters might slightly vary in length, but now at least you know why. Thank you so much for reading, and I'll see you again next Monday with another update! PLEASE REVIEW! :)**

 **And have a lovely day!**

 **Love,**

 **~Princess Andromeda II**


	3. Archery Range

**Hello, everyone! Welcome back for Chapter 3 of this story. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited so far; your support means more to me than you'll ever know! Also, PLEASE vote on the poll on my profile, cause it currently has 98 votes and it would be so awesome if we could reach 100 by my next update, that would just be big bundles of awesomeness. Ok ok, I'll hush now. Thank you in advance, and please enjoy!**

Finally, the couple came in sight of the archery range, where a group of young demigods were practicing their shooting skills. Most of the kids were new recruits who had likely never held a bow before in their life, and when they actually managed to notch an arrow and fight it, most of them hit far from their target. One little boy who wore an oversized T-shirt was actually so far from hitting his own target that he hit the target of a girl's a few kids down.

Annabeth leaned over to Percy, who was trying to hold back his laughter, and said, "I wouldn't laugh if I were you, Seaweed Brain. Every single one of these kids can still shoot better than you."

He sent her a death glare lined with daggers, but she just grinned and rolled her eyes. Turning, she waved to the instructor a little ways down the field.

"Will!" she called, and upon seeing the instructor's assistant, she waved to him too. "Hey, Nico!"

When both men spied the daughter of Athena, they waved back, a radiant smile lighting Will's face. Even Nico grinned big enough that Annabeth could see his white teeth from yards away.

Percy and Annabeth watched as Will slung his bow over his shoulder and said something to them.

"What did he say?" Percy stage-whispered to his wife, but she just shrugged and turned to Will, shouting back at him.

"What?"

Will cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled something, though once again, they couldn't tell what he said. When they just shrugged to show their lack of understanding, he began to walk forward, as if to come tell them what he needed to, but was stopped short by an onslaught of arrows that raced sideways from the archers to the targets. He scrambled backwards, his eyes wide. The entire thing was played out before Percy and Annabeth like a silent movie: over-exaggerated movements, big facial expressions, and complete lack of verbal communication, with the only exception being the sound of Nico's roaring laughter at Will's misfortune. In response, Will merely stuck out at his tongue at Nico and, pulling something from his pocket, he attached the item to the end of an arrow. He notched it, fired, and Percy and Annabeth were forced to duck to the side as the arrow landed with a solid thud in the tree that stood between them. They saw Nico roll his eyes at Will, as if to say _Show-off_.

"Go on," Annabeth urged her husband, gesturing at the arrow. He pulled the arrow from the tree and saw that the item affixed to the end was another clue, this one having been poked through the arrow and stuck onto the body of it. It said:

 _Watch your step_

 _And do not fall._

 _Off you go!_

 _To the climbing wall._

Percy glanced at Annabeth when he was done reading it, wrinkling his nose slightly at the message. "That was an easy one."

Annabeth shrugged. "So?  
" _So_ ," he said, shoving the clue into his pocket, "I thought this was supposed to be hard."

Again, she shrugged. "Hey, don't blame me. I didn't write it."

"Well then I guess we need to tell Rachel to step up her game," he replied with a laugh, before walking away from the tree and off to the climbing wall. "Come on, Wise Girl."

She nodded, but not before she turned to Will and Nico and gave them a big thumbs-up. They returned the gesture, waving goodbye and mouthing "good luck" to her as she set off after her husband, who was already past the combat arena and nearly to the pegasus stables. She smiled, glad that he was enjoying this little scavenger hunt of hers. It was much more fun than letting him sleep in all day and watching him drool on their pillows.

 **Sooooo how did you like it? Please let me know with a review! Honestly, every single review makes my day a little better, and I love hearing anything y'all have to say, even if it's just "Hello". Feel free to follow and favorite too, of course... But most importantly, I hope you have a lovely day!**

 **Love,**

 **~Princess Andromeda II**


	4. Climbing Wall

**Hello, everyone! How's your day going so far? I actually had a pretty rotten day, but then I stepped outside and it finally felt like fall! Leaves were falling and it was cool for the first time since March! Instantly put me in a better mood. Haha sorry for that little ramble, but I'm just so excited for fall (anyone else?).** **Also, thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, favorited, and voted last chapter (my poll hit 100 votes! finally! Big bundles of awesomeness officially achieved). I promise I'll hush now... Thank you in advance for reading, and please, enjoy Chapter 4! :)**

"Exactly how many of these clues are there?" Percy asked her when she'd finally caught up to him (somewhere around the cabins). He noticed her breathing hard, which was unusual for Annabeth, but he stopped jogging and slowed to a nice, easy walk beside her anyway.

She didn't answer for a minute, as she was still catching her breath. _Odd_ , he thought, but didn't comment.

"More than you count," she teased, though she sounded winded when she said it.

He glanced at her in concern. "You okay, Wise Girl?"

Her eyes widened in alarm. "Yeah! Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, you just seem...tired."

She huffed indignantly, though it didn't sound like she meant it. "So what, it's okay to be tired when it's nighttime, but it's forbidden to be just a _little_ bit fatigued when the sun's out? How ridiculous is that!"

"Whoa, okay, I didn't know you felt like that," he backpedaled, his hands held up in surrender. "Sorry, Wise Girl."

She nodded assertively. "Good. Now come on, slowpoke." And with that, she picked up her previous pace and broke into a run, though from the back it seemed as though her arms were pumping faster and her shoulders were working harder than they usually had to. Still, he followed her, not one to stir up an argument (after all, it was the Husband Rule that your wife was always right, a rule that must have been invented with Annabeth in mind).

Quickly, they arrived at the climbing wall, and they stopped to lean back and admire the tall structure. The treacherous terrain of rocks that could disappear from underneath your hands and feet, the scolding-hot lava that poured off of the side, the boulders that rained down on unsuspecting campers... It was beautiful, in a terrifying, I-will-kill-you sort of way.

"So...now what?" asked Percy after they had waited a moment.

Annabeth glanced impatiently at her watch that she wore at all times; she had to be efficient and prompt to be the co-head director of camp, along with her husband, of course. "Where are they?" she muttered. "They were supposed to be here already. I wonder if - "

Percy didn't get to hear the end of her sentence, but he suspected that her question was answered as someone yelled something unintelligible from the top of the tower, and a person half-jumped, half-fell off of the very top. A guttural scream escaped the person's throat as he fell through the air, and he almost sounded like he was... _laughing_. But the laughter was quickly cut off as the person collapsed onto the ground with a sickening thud and lay still.

"Oh my gods!" cried Annabeth as she raced over, Percy right beside her. They knelt by the person - a man with a mop curly brown hair - and flipped him over so that he lay face-up.

"Connor!" Percy said, recognizing the man. In the past, identifying him when he was not right next to his brother would have been impossible, for they had looked exactly alike except for the fact that Travis was taller. Nowadays though, it was easier, for though they still resembled each other an extraordinary amount for siblings who weren't twins, Travis had since grown a beard, and Connor remained as baby-faced as ever.

In response to Percy's voice, Connor's eyelashes fluttered open, and he grinned when he saw Percy. "Hey dude," he drawled in a drunken tone as he flashed his friend a peace-sign. "What's up?"

Annabeth didn't give her husband a chance to answer, instead asking in a slightly exasperated voice, "Connor, can we please just have the clue?"

"Sheesh! Someone's a little impatient" noted the son of Hermes with a roll of his eyes. Still, he began to rummage around in his pockets, as if searching for something."Just gimme a second. I stuck it in my pocket this morning. At least... At least I think I did."

His brown eyes widened in obvious panic at the thought of facing Annabeth when she was angry, and he held up his hands to ward her off. "I swear it was in here earlier. You can ask Travis, he saw me do it, just ask -"

He halted midway through his sentence, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Travis," he muttered, his gaze darting upwards to the rock wall on which his brother perched.

Upon seeing his brother's expression, Travis simply waved innocently, a devilish smile on his face being the only giveaway that he was up to no good.

"Travis!" Connor shouted, even wagging his fist for good measure. "Give me the clue!"

"Oh," his brother sighed nonchalantly, drawing a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket casually. "You mean... _this_ clue?"

The only response was a menacing growl, to which he replied by brandishing the clue and waving it tauntingly in the air.

Apparently, this was the last straw for Annabeth, for the smidgen of patience she had managed to retain suddenly evaporated into thin air, and she exploded: "Travis! Connor! _Enough!_ We are on a deadline here, so if you two could _please_ just hurry up, I would really appreciate it!"

The pair of mischief-makers muttered something intelligible, but the older brother reluctantly folded the piece of paper into an airplane and threw it down.

Annabeth watched with an incredible amount of patience as the makeshift-airplane glided down leisurely from the tower, seemingly taking its time. Noticing the pinched expression on her face, Percy attempted to repress a chuckle, but his wife heard him anyway, and threw him a sour look.

Ages later, the clue got close enough for the daughter of Athena' to snatch it out of the air and uncrumple it, and her husband came to stand beside her so that they could both read it:

 _See them from the Big House,_

 _They smell so sweet._

 _A batch of these_

 _Is hard to beat._

"I'm assuming that doesn't mean a batch of cookies?" guessed Percy as he tucked the clue into his pocket.

Annabeth laughed, and looped her arm through his as they began to walk away. " _Please_. As if anyone could replicate your mom's blue cookies."

"Alright, guys," Connor called after them forlornly, looking quite pitiful as he lay sprawled on the ground all alone. "See you later..."

 **Thank you for reading! I really appreciate you taking the time to read my little story. :) Any chance we can get five reviews for this chapter? Please? I love hearing what y'all have to say, criticism included. Anyway, thanks again for everything. See you next Monday with another chapter for this story!**

 **And I hope you have a really lovely day!**

 **Love,**

 **~Princess Andromeda II**


	5. Strawberry Fields

***nervous laughter* Ummm hey guys. So, I know it's been waaaaay too long, but the past 4 months have been crazy and I've had no time to write. However I finally feel like I'm at a place where I can write again, and I'm really excited to keep going. Hopefully there are still a few people out there who are open to reading this story, but I won't judge anyone who decides they just don't care anymore lol (I honestly don't blame you one bit). Anyway, I'll shut up now, and let you read. Please enjoy! :)**

The sun was halfway through the sky by the time that they were on their way to the strawberry fields, and it couldn't have been a more perfect day in Annabeth's opinion. She and her husband - hands clasped together comfortably - strolled across the vast lawn that spanned the forefront of camp, the wind whipping their hair into wild frenzies that framed their faces. Puffy white clouds resembling tufts of cotton candy drifted lazily across the sky, which was so bright and blue that it seemed to reflect all of her happiness right back to her.

 _Enjoy it while you can,_ warned a thin voice in the back of her head, rudely interrupting her merriment. _Once you're a mom, you will never have another day like this again. You think you're busy now? Wait until you have a kid - or two, or three, or a dozen - and you have to change diapers, feed hungry mouths, hustle here and there... You'll never have another moment all to yourself again._

That thought alone was enough rain on Annabeth's parade; instantly, her happy-go-lucky mood was replaced by a

"Oh wow," he said, inhaling and exhaling the fresh scent with a deep sigh. "Those strawberries... Even the smell of them is making me hungry!"

As if to reiterate his point, the son of Poseidon's stomach let out a rumble that could probably be heard all the way to the Zeus's Fist.

And just like that, the fist of concerns gathered in her stomach began to unclench its cruel fingers, and the knot of worry that had threatened to make her so sick vanished into thin air.

"Seaweed Brain!" she laughed, smacking him lightly on his arm. "We just ate!"

He shrugged, a sheepish grin spreading across his face. "What can I say? We grow the best strawberries ever! Courtesy of Delphi Strawberry Service," he added with a mischievous little wink.

Annabeth merely laughed in reply, flashing him a grin that seemed to say, _What am I going to do with you_? But in reality, she could already feel the worry sweeping off of her shoulders, unknowingly dusted away by her husband, who always seemed to know the right thing to do or say that would make her smile.

Almost as if to demonstrate this quality that he didn't know he possessed, Percy raced ahead of his wife, suddenly breaking into a spontaneous routine that included a leap, a lunge, and a somersault, which ultimately resulted in him lying flat on his back across the grass, laughing so hard that his shoulders shook and his eyes forced themselves shut.

The action was so adorable, so innocent and jovial, that Annabeth felt a wide grin break across her face, mirroring her husband's expression. His smile was the most reassuring thing in the world to her, and it brought back so many fond memories of the two of them. Nothing significant, just little precious memories of stolen kisses and mischievous smirks that she'd stowed away in her memory for later.

"What kind of smile is that, Annabeth?"

Instantly, the blonde was jerked out of her reverie. She quickly dropped the smile that had been lighting her face, replacing it with a forced frown. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't lie to me, Wise Girl," dead-panned her husband, clearly not believing her mock-pout for one second. "You've got that look in your eyes. The one that means you're either really happy, or you really have the urge to maim and kill someone."

Suddenly, his eyes widened, becoming the size of saucers. " _Di immortales_ ," he cursed under his breath, backing away slowly. "It's not that time of the month, is it?"

" _Rude_!" scolded Annabeth as she lightly slapped his arm, though on the inside she was panicking from the thought that maybe he knew about the, urm, " _package_ " that was soon to be delivered, and was just teasing her by playing with her mind.

 _There's no way he knows_ , she calmed herself mentally. _I only took the test this morning, that's not enough time for him to find out...right?_

Despite her claims that she was _not_ currently "surfing the crimson wave", Percy still regarded her warily, squinting at her slightly. "I don't know..." he said hesitantly, and Annabeth fought to keep down that same panicky feeling from before. "You definitely look like you have the urge to maim and kill. Or is that just your normal face?"

She let out a sigh of relief, grateful he really didn't know. "You know what, Seaweed Brain? You're right: I _do_ suddenly have the urge to maim and kill!"

Percy rolled his eyes, something that he wouldn't have been able to get away with on any other day than today. Annabeth made a mental note to herself that she'd have to get him back later for every time he rolled his eyes at her. She was pregnant, for Zeus's sake! She deserved a little more respect than that!

"Puh-lease," he said, adding another excessive eye-roll. "You couldn't kill me even if you wanted to."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows, daring him, "Oh yeah? We'll just see about that."

She suddenly twisted around, sprinting towards him like a ninja with her hands raised in front of her. The last thing she saw before she gave a considerable kangaroo-kick to Percy's chest was his sea-green eyes widening in horror as a blonde woman knocking him down swiftly, screaming like a crazy person. Moments later, the all-powerful son of Poseidon lay stunned on the ground, and the daughter of Athena stood over him triumphantly, her hands balanced on her hips as she pumped a victorious fist in the air.

"That'll teach you to mess with me," she taunted as she stuck her tongue out at him. At first, he only blinked at her, but the blank expression was replaced with a mischievous smirk. The fallen demigod suddenly sprung to his feet, and wrapped both of his arms around Annabeth as he lept forward, encasing her in a gentle tackle.

Her husband coming with her, Annabeth could only let out a quiet gasp as they tumbled down the hill in a mess of discombobulated arms and legs. The hill was steep: much steeper than Annabeth would have liked. When they finally rolled to a stop at the bottom, a tangle of limbs, Percy was lying on the ground, gasping for air through his hysterical laughter; Annabeth, on the other hand, immediately curled into a protective ball, her hands travelling to her stomach and hovering them hesitantly.

Normally, such a playful tackle from her husband would have meant only a minor bruise or two and a few cuts here and there, but this was more than just an insignificant little scrape: this was her unborn child, who could very easily be dead right now inside of her. The thought was beyond-terrifying to Annabeth: she had already lost so many people, so many good lives gone, that she couldn't stand to see another go, especially one that hadn't even begun yet.

Hesitantly, as if afraid of what she would - or rather, _wouldn't_ \- feel, Annabeth slid her hands cautiously over her stomach, and waited. She didn't feel anything, at least, nothing physical. But it was like a voice, maybe it was her mother's, was telling her that it was okay. Her baby was alright.

That bit of reassurance she felt was enough to force a tear out of Annabeth's eye, then another, and another, and another, until a flood of tears was streaming down her cheeks.

Percy turned towards her, somewhat recovered from his fit of laughter, but stopped instantly when he saw that Annabeth was crying.

"Annabeth!" he exclaimed as he caught sight of her tear-streaked face. "Annabeth! What's wrong?"

When she didn't answer, he lept to his feet and rushed over to her. He wasn't alone either: two more people quickly came running up to the couple, and as her husband knelt to her, rubbing her back gently and whispering comforting words, Annabeth sensed the two people coming nearer until they stopped in front of her.

"Are you okay?" one of the people asked, and Annabeth glanced up at the speaker, squinting against the harsh noon sun that glared down at her.

"Oh! Grover!" she said, surprised to see satyr. When she caught sight of Juniper next to him, she suddenly realized how long she must have taken for the two of them to come looking for her and Percy. They must have been very late to the next location, so Grover and his girlfriend just tried to find them on their own.

"Sorry we took so long," she muttered out of embarrassment, wiping the tears from her face in a hurry. It was clear that both the satyr and the dryad had seen her crying, but she was grateful that neither questioned it.

"It's fine," smiled Juniper gracefully, and Annabeth once again wished she could look that beautiful and it appear so effortless. "We were getting kind of tired of smelling all those strawberries anyway."

Grover seemed to blush slightly, saying, "It's my fault. I got hungry and practically ate half of the field before Juniper stopped me."

Annabeth just laughed, which seemed to smooth over the satyr's nerves ever so slightly, because he hesitantly thrust forward his hand, in which he gripped another shiny card that gleamed under the afternoon sun.

Percy accepted it from his friend, raising his eyebrows in question at Annabeth for permission. "May I?" She responded with a nod and a smile, watching him eagerly flip the card over to read it:

 _We built a golden dragon,_

 _And a Greek war ship._

 _We'll give you the next clue,_

 _If you agree to worship...(us)_

When he finished reading, Percy gaped at Annabeth open-mouthed, seemingly in shock. "Please tell me that was not supposed to be a poem."

Annabeth held up her hands in defense, her blonde hair bouncing on her shoulders as she did. "Don't blame me, I didn't write it."

"Ugh, I bet Leo wrote it, didn't he?" groaned Percy. "He's the only person I know that's dumb enough to try to rhyme 'war ship' and 'worship' by adding an 'us' at the end."

Annabeth grinned at the thought. "How ever did you manage to guess that?"

She then turned to Grover and Juniper, who waited with patient smiles on their faces. "I guess we'd better get going now," she said, leaning forward to hug them both. "Thanks for waiting so long, I'm really sorry about that."

Juniper waved the apology off with a smile. "Don't worry about it. We had plenty of strawberries to help us endure it."

Annabeth nodded, hugged them each one last time, and began walking towards the woods. She turned when she saw that she was alone, and saw her husband standing rooted in one place, reading over the clue another time with a disgusted look on his face.

"Coming, Seaweed Brain?" she called to him, her impatience returning.

Percy glanced up and nodded, regarding the card with distaste one last time before chucking it over his shoulder and waving to Juniper and Grover as he chased after Annabeth.

 **Welp, that was way longer than I intended, but whatever. I'm so sorry for this chapter, because I feel like my writing is so rusty, but I'll hope you'll forgive me because I haven't written in like 4 months, so...yeah. Anyway, I still hope you enjoyed it despite that, and that maybe (just maybe) if you're feeling generous today, you'll drop me a review down below to let me know what you thought. ) Thanks for reading, I love you all! :)**

 **~ Princess Andromeda II**


	6. Bunker 9

**Yessss I finally managed to update!** **Thanks to all of my lovely readers and reviewers last chapter, specifically** ImpossibleThings12, GollyGeeWhiz, lunarchroniclesandcockatiels, Namibq, VCRx, somanyfandoms03, Crazy Fangirl No. 1, PercaBeth Fan, HeroesOfOlympusRules, **and** PJOIsDaBest. **Lmao honestly some of your names make me laugh so hard, I love them! :)**

"Do you even remember how to get to Bunker 9?" Percy wheezed as he trudged through the forest, tree limbs smacking his face with nearly every step he took.

Annabeth smirked when she saw him struggling to push his way past an especially difficult tangle of trees, and nodded. "Of course I do. I've been here for ages, and you have too, which means we're both supposed to know every square inch of this place, inside and out."

Percy huffed, pouting slightly. "I know that. I'm the head camp director, after all!"

The blonde raised her eyebrows ever so slightly in defiance. " _Co_ -head camp director," she said, being sure to place special emphasis on the "co" part. "Just because you're the son of Poseidon and a child of the Big Three doesn't mean you get to be all high and mighty, got it, buddy?"

He raised his hands up in self-defense with a nervous chuckle. "Sorry, sorry. Besides, we both know that between the two of us, you're the brains of the operation..." Annabeth smiled, but her expression quickly dropped into a scowl when her husband added, "...and I'm in charge of the looks."

She stared at him indignantly, and he had the audacity to wink at her. Her frown only deepened, and she shoved him so that he fell down, landing hard on his bottom. He just laughed, and that further infuriated her.

When he saw her stomping off, Percy only laughed harder, and he got up to chase after her. "Honey," he chuckled, still wiping dried leaves off of his pants, "come back! Okay, okay, I'm sorry. You can be the brains _and_ the looks. Happy?"

Annabeth glanced at him and nodded with a mocking smile. " _Very_. Now shut up and help me figure out how to get in here."

"What?" said Percy, glancing in front of him. He noted with some astonishment that they had arrived before a massive wall, at least 3 or 4 stories high, that was completely stone. It spanned for several yards in either direction, and was built into the side of the hill like a bulwark. Curtains of ivy, some of which must have been at least 100 feet in length, snaked their way down the wall like a poor man's choice in drapes.

"Bunker 9?" guessed Percy, not able to tear his eyes away from the impressive sight.

"Yep," said Annabeth, before she hesitantly reached forward and placed her hands on the wall's face and began running them up and down.

"Umm...Annabeth?" questioned the son of Poseidon, looking at her in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she retorted, focused on her task. "I'm trying to find a way in."

The dark-haired man regarded her with a blank expression. "Why don't we just knock?"

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, not even bothering to consider the idea. Who could blame her? She was tired, she was hungry, she was sweaty, and, most importantly, she was pregnant.

"Come on Seaweed Brain, do you honestly think it's as easy as -"

The blonde was suddenly cut off by a grinding noise that sounded like hundreds of thousands of gears clanking against each other at the same time. The horrendously-high screech was enough to make her cover her ears in agony, and she stared at her husband with wide eyes.

"What did you do?!" she yelled, and he shrugged at her over the noise.

Annabeth turned to see that the stone wall had slowly begun to move upward, as simply as if someone was pulling up the blinds on a window. She stared at the sight in shock: that wall - that huge, enormous, gigantic, and other-synonyms-for-big wall - was _moving_.

After about thirty seconds, the wall was all the way up, and had revealed two people standing on the other side: one of them, a tan girl with caramel-colored hair and almond-shaped eyes. She looked stunning, thought Annabeth, even though all she wore was a simple white T-shirt with grease stains and jeans with matching brown specks.

The other person was scrawny young man with an unruly head of curls and tanned skin, slightly darker than the female beside him. His cheeks though were perfectly rosy when he grinned at them, revealing a row of astonishingly white teeth, and his eyes twinkled with mischief.

"You look like you just listened to a Fury screaming," the young man said, laughing at Annabeth's "O"-shaped mouth. No doubt he could tell by the stunned expression on her face that her ears were still slightly ringing.

" _Leo,_ " she demanded, glancing up at the wall that hovered above them, " _what the Hades was that?_ "

"Oh, that?" the son of Hephaestus said with a chuckle, following her gaze upwards. "That's our front door. Do you like it?"

The girl beside him - Calypso - leaned forward with a roll of her eyes. "It needs a little oil, as you can probably tell."

"No kidding," mumbled Percy under his breath as he and Annabeth passed through the gaping hole in the side of the hill and into a spacious room about the size of an aircraft hangar. Annabeth gaped open-mouthed at the sight; she had only been in here a few times, and it had been several years. The Hephaestus kids (and Calypso too) tended to be pretty tight-lipped when it came to sharing about what went on inside the oh-so-secret Bunker 9.

The four of them stood there for a moment, the two newcomers gazing around in interest and the other two standing there awkwardly. The silence ended when both Calypso and Annabeth subtly elbowed the men beside them, prompting them to speak.

"We need a clue from you," Percy suddenly said, at the same time that Leo announced, "We have a clue for you."

Surprised laughter broke out amongst the friends, and Leo reached into his magical toolbelt - the one that Annabeth never saw him without - and dug out a familiar gold card.

"Sorry for the grease stains," he apologized as he handed it to Percy, subtly wiping his oily hands on his already-ruined jeans in slight-embarrassment.

Percy waved his friend's cares away, merely flipping the card over in a hurry. As he read, Annabeth smiled lovingly, enjoying her husband's eagerness for the idea she'd thought up.

 _It's not important_

 _If it's wrong or right._

 _Just go grab a sword,_

 _And let's have a fight!_

When he finished reading, Percy glanced up in mock-surprise. "Who wrote this?" he demanded with an obviously-fake scowl on his face. "Who would dare to encourage violence in front of the son of Poseidon?"

"Oh hush," Annabeth said, silencing him with a light slap on his arm. "Do you have any idea where it is?"

Percy stared at the paper in concentration. "Well...you could have a fight pretty much anywhere. It could be in the mess hall, or in the Big House, or on top of Zeus's Fist, or near the zipline, or -"

Annabeth suddenly cut him off with a slight _tsk_. "Seaweed Brain, we don't even _have_ a zipline at Camp Half-Blood!"

"That's what I mean!" the dark-haired man said, smacking the paper with his hand. "How do I even know this is a location at camp?"

All the blonde could do was let out a groan of frustration as she grabbed her husband's arm and stomped off. "Come on," she huffed, flicking her blonde curls out of her face. "We're going to the combat arena!"

"Thanks for the clue, Wise Girl," he said cheerily, laughing as she dragged him out of the bunker. She merely grumbled something incomprehensible in response.

Before they were too far out of sight, Percy turned over his shoulder long enough to wave at the couple standing in the massive doorway and shout, "By the way: congratulations on your engagement!"

Calypso blushed politely, and Leo grinned, pumping his fist in the air. "Yeah man! We'll have plenty of food, so don't worry!"

Percy gave him a thumbs-up in response, waving goodbye one last time as his wife pulled him away towards the combat arena, the sun setting so that it was now even with the tips of the trees.

 **Lol** **originally** **this chapter was supposed to be only about 500 words, but here we are 2000 words later, and clearly that's not the case. Thanks again for everything you guys! I'll try to update again soon, but in the meantime, try to stay happy, healthy, and safe!**

 **~ Princess Andromeda II**


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